With sponsorship from hardware and software vendor partners, competing student teams design and build small clusters, learn scientific applications, and apply optimization techniques for their chosen architectures in a non-stop, 48-hour challenge.
Student Cluster Competition ScheduleMonday–Wednesday, November 13–15, 2023
Student Cluster Competition ChairJenett Tillotson, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
Student Cluster Competition (SCC) Applications open March 1, 2023.
MAR 1, 2023
Applications Open
MAY 15, 2023
Applications Close
JUN 15, 2023
Notifications Sent
Teams are composed of six students, an advisor, and vendor partners. The advisor provides guidance and recommendations, the vendor provides the resources (hardware and software), and the students provide the skill and enthusiasm. Students work with their advisors to craft a proposal that describes the team, the suggested hardware, and their approach to the competition. The SCC committee reviews each proposal and provides comments for all submissions. The requirements for teams are described more completely below.
Team clusters should be able to run the competition’s applications and exercises without exceeding a fixed power limit. This year the competition will include a fixed power limit of 4000W for the computational components of the cluster with an extra 500W for networking hardware for a total of 4500W. Hardware requirements are described more completely in the SCC Rules.
Selected teams receive full conference registration for each team member and one advisor. Each team is also provided with seven single-occupancy hotel rooms for the students and advisor. As the competition is part of the Students@SC program, students can also participate in Mentor–Protégé Matching and the Job Fair. Travel to the conference and per diem are not provided.
One of the applications presented to the student teams is the Reproducibility Challenge, in which students attempt to reproduce results from an accepted paper from the prior year’s Technical Program.
Students have the opportunity to interact directly with the paper’s authors as they attempt to reproduce specific results and conclusions from the paper. As part of this challenge, each student team writes a reproducibility report detailing their experience in reproducing the results from the paper. Authors of the most highly rated reproducibility reports may be invited to submit their reports to a reproducibility special issue.
The Student Cluster Competition (SCC) was developed in 2007 to provide an immersive high performance computing experience to undergraduate and high school students.
For more information about SCC in past years, including team profiles, photos, winners, and more:
The SCC is looking for scientific applications from the HPC community that could be used as the SCC Mystery Application. If you have a scientific application that you think would be a great fit for the competition, please consider submitting.
The application should not have export control restrictions and must have up-to-date documentation. Submissions and selections must be kept confidential until the beginning of the SCC when the mystery application selected will be revealed.
Each submission must list an application owner who will:
Applications Open March 1–May 31, 2023
The Student Cluster Competition (SCC) began in 2007 to provide an immersive high performance computing experience to undergraduate and high school students. The goal of the competition is to foster interest and experience in HPC for students. The SCC includes components that reflect current, real-world considerations and challenges encountered by HPC professionals.
Violation of any rule may result in a team’s disqualification from the competition, or point penalization, at the discretion of the SCC committee. Any unethical conduct not otherwise covered in these rules will also be penalized at the discretion of the SCC Committee. All decisions are the sole discretion of the SCC Committee and decisions concerning the rules in a given situation are final.
Equipment configurations, booth layout, and booth occupancy are always subject to safety as first consideration. If a task cannot be done safely, then it is unacceptable. When in doubt, ask an SCC supervisor or team liaison.
Teams are composed of six students, an advisor, and vendor partners:
Teams can optionally nominate up to two “logistics coordinators” who are secondary advisors or other support staff who should receive a copy of any communications sent to the primary advisor.
Teams will be invited to participate based on their Team Application, submitted via the SC Submission System. The Team Application includes a description of the team, the proposed hardware and software that will make up their cluster, and their approach to the competition. The SCC Committee reviews each proposal and provides comments for all submissions. The team composition and proposed hardware and software must all conform to the rules described below.
Student Team Members must:
Teams are encouraged to include diverse participation including new participants and under-represented groups. To encourage new participants and help new teams participate, half of the students making up any team must be first-time participants in the SCC.
During preparation for the competition, the Team Advisor, vendor partners and other supporters are encouraged to help the team train for the competition. However, only the six registered team members will have access to the cloud-based computational resources during the training period.
External Assistance
Resource Access
Teams must conduct themselves professionally and adhere to the Code of Conduct. Students must compete fairly and ethically.
The two fundamental hardware requirements for team clusters are that they are able to run the applications and exercises of the competition, and that they can operate within the power draw limits described below. Hardware must also meet the following constraints:
Further mandatory events will be announced at a later date.
Create an account in the online submission system and complete the form. A sample form can be viewed before signing in.
If you have questions about SCC applications, please contact the program committee.
A cluster competition with the intent to create a more inclusive and education-focused track of the Student Cluster Competition.